Humanity
by Azralan
Summary: Things long forgotten slumber beneath the known lands. A civilization of ancient beings and ideas. Foreign concepts once again erupt into existence as our heroine (?) stumbles upon the foundation of this ancient civilization. Can the flames light vanquish the darkness a certain being has spread upon the world? (Somebody just had to do this ;))
1. Chapter 1

When I was quite a bit younger, my world views were set...

Have you ever wondered if what science and media tell us about the world is actually true?

Have you ever wondered if the history of our planet – everything that had already happened, things long forgotten – is as clear as we make it out to be?

Have you ever wondered, if we were really the first great civilization to come into existence?

I wondered about that, once.

I thought long and hard – at least as long as my childish brain could endure – about these things... about the things we perceive as truth.

My mother, before she died, always told me to think about things for myself.

I did.

I also came to the conclusion, that science and media are probably right about all these things. I was strongly convinced that certain things existed, and others simply didn't...

Maybe it was just wishful thinking, the fear of things unknown to man.

When I was quite a bit younger, my world views were set... until I got to summer camp again.

I had been there before, during that hot summer just before the possibly greatest betrayal of my life.

And I went there again.

Somehow, my dad had gotten enough money to send me there again and I, feeling just a little bit guilty about making him pay for it when we didn't have that much money to begin with, took the chance to get away from the whole situation in Brockton Bay for a bit.

There were a few people that had been there with me the time before that, during that hot, traitorous summer.

Most of them didn't recognize me at first.

My pigtails were gone, my clothing had changed and I acted differently.

Gone was the cheerful girl from before.

Betrayal does this to you, I guess.

The first few days of summer camp were pretty normal. I got used to non-hostile social interactions again and got out of my shell a bit, or so I believe.

Then we went hiking and everything went wrong.

I got separated from the group for reasons unknown to even me. Suddenly they were just gone... I really don't remember.

I had no idea how to get back to the camp, so I tried looking for a higher point that would allow me to spot it. I sucked at climbing so I went uphill, hoping the forest would lighten up; the rest of the group was headed upwards as well, anyway.

I came across a rather large clearing, the ground was rocky and it was difficult not to lose my footing.

When I was halfway across the clearing, the ground beneath me gave way and I stumbled, barely able to let out a scream before the ground swallowed me whole.

Something like that just had to happen to me...

I stumbled down through the darkness, barely able to make out any shapes.

Suddenly, the narrow path opened into a large cavern of sorts and gigantic roots broke my fall, my stumbling slowing slowly but surely and my screams echoed in the large chamber.

The I hit the ground, rather hard.

I survived, thankfully.

I looked up and around, grateful that, by some kind of miracle, my glasses had survived the fall.

I was on a relatively small plateau, all around me darkness. The only things I could make out were roots, the path before me, lit by torches, and the colossal, open door before me.

In front of that door was some kind f altar... it looked like it was supposed to hold something and there was a round indentation in it.

The door itself looked insanely heavy and was decorated with all kinds of symbols, these shapes carved into the dark metal were shining in the low light environment, the torches reflecting on the doors surface.

Beyond it?

I stepped through the door and saw the most beautiful and frightening thing I've ever seen.

The landscape was ashen and led steadily downwards to some kind of round, arena-like place.

Dark spires stretched high up as if reaching for the ceiling that couldn't be seen.

The door closed behind me with a heavy thump and my heart started to race. This was just so frightening.

Nevertheless, I made my way downward, towards the centre of the whole thing.

The air was surprisingly clear, though. As if it had been centuries since any alive being took a breath of the air.

I walked for quite a while, walking past a few black rocks on my way downwards, and thought about my situation.

What was this place...

Then I finally reached the entrance to the round structure and the smell of smoke reached my nose.

In the exact middle of the whole place, embedded in some barely glowing embers nourishing a small flame, was a sword with a slightly twisted blade, ash marks all over it.

In the embers of this flickering sigh, though, were four bright sparks, seemingly flames of their own.

Not knowing what else to do, I stepped towards it and touched the handle of the sword...

And my world erupted in flames.

 _A/N: And this is the first chapter... more of a prologue, really. I've been rather busy these last few days and, quite frankly, I'm just extremely lazy. Between schoolwork and a trip to Milan there wasn't a lot of time... and whatever time I had was rather spent on playing Overwatch. There might be a short-ish story for that as well._

 _Anyway, I'm submitting this under Worm stories for now, mostly because I want to see who can guess right what crossover this will be. With the recent boom of the franchise, I expect there to be many quick and correct answers but whatever._

 _Anyway, thanks for bearing with me._

 _-Azralan_


	2. Chapter 2

The ground trembled that day, several cities in the New England region reporting mild earthquakes.

It lasted for quite a while and the local authorities, in their paranoia, immediately suspected parahuman involvement. They were unsure about the location of the epicentre of the mild-ish earthquake, though.

The ground started to heat up in several places as if the furnaces of hell themselves had decided on that moment to fire up again.

And who knew, maybe they had.

Those organizations with access to Thinkers used these to try and find out more.

Most Thinkers simply drew blank, having not a single clue as to what was happening.

Most are not all, though.

While not quite sure of the exact origin of the quake, a single girl sitting in a bar – her head covered with blonde hair and her face dotted with freckles – turned to the approximate direction of the epicentre.

 _A fire? Underground?_

And below the earth, near a small mountain range, inside a deep and truly gigantic chamber, an immense fire burned, its light illuminating the ashen landscape around it for the first time in centuries.

The fire raged and grew, shining brighter with each patch of ashen ground it spread to, and from the ground, as if reaching for the heat of the flame, large hands covered in black gauntlets reached upwards.

Tall figures, clad in black armour with various weapons strapped to their backs, rose from the ashes, answering the call they all had heard.

The figures neared the flame, casting long shadows on the ground and shaking off the ashes remaining on them from their long slumber.

The fire they were walking toward seemed to stabilize after quite some time after it had spread to the outskirts of the vast and eerie landscape, engulfing the black knights who didn't seem to care about the heat, nor about the brightness.

And in the centre of the gargantuan flame, the point where all the knights' eyes were locked on, a figure, tall and majestic, brown hair whirling around its face, opened its eyes.

It was at that moment that the knights knew their wait was over.

The flame burned once more, the world could return to its former glory and the dark would be repelled.

A new age had begun... a new Age of Fire.

…

And Taylor Hebert opened her eyes once more.

\- Humanity -

The rain outside fell in streams and Emily Piggot was glad to be dry and inside her office. Even though the rain fell it was hot outside.

The event a few hours earlier had heated up the ground and evaporated quite a low of water so the surprising amount of downfall were to be expected.

Thankfully, the ground had cooled down again, although it was still slightly warmer than before.

The director of the PRT ENE, stationed in Brockton Bay, was in a meeting with the other directors. The topic of discussion being the already mentioned event earlier that day and their speculations about the origin of it.

Currently, the leaders of the Parahuman Response Teams were pretty much clueless; there wasn't a lot of information available.

The only thing they had been able to discern was that the origin of the quake that had shaken the land lay somewhere near the ENE branches HQ.

 _As if I don't already have enough to do... This city really doesn't need some kind of disaster striking it soon. At least it was confirmed that it wasn't Behemoth._

"Do we have a clue about the actual cause of the quake? According to Dragon, Behemoth cannot be the perpetrator since he is currently burrowing under East Asia.", one of the people on the screen in front of her asked.

She wasn't particularly interested in the whole thing but begrudgingly acknowledged that the ENE branch was important in this.

"We suspect a trigger event. A power like that would be known already so it is the only plausible option.", Chief Director Costa-Brown answered the question.

"Then I suppose we follow through with the standard procedure?", Emily Piggot inquired.

"Yes, though it would be good to establish especially strong connections early on, assuming the cape in question chooses to be a hero."

"Good. I will send a small troop to investigate the general area the event is most likely to have been caused from."

Cancelling the call, the director of the PRT ENE reached for the small office phone on her desk and pressed a button, retracting the screen she had used to observe the meeting back into the ceiling.

She took the receiver and dialled in a shortcut...

She had things to prepare.

\- Humanity -

Warmth filled me, like a perpetual flame burning inside me, so strong that I would never have to fear the cold emptiness I had felt for the last year.

A feeling of power filled me and I felt content to be myself, for the first time in so long.

As I opened my eyes and saw the fire that surrounded me, I at first didn't know what to do.

I knew the fire wouldn't hurt me, that feeling was instinctual, somehow, but I was very unused to being covered in flames, and the strangeness of the situation I had found myself in, both earlier when I had literally stumbled into this place and now, after waking, only just began to settle in.

The warmth was unlike anything I had ever felt before and the feeling of power it gave me was exhilarating.

Screw Emma, I didn't need her. I didn't need anyone... but I wanted them... I really wanted friends...

It was kind of sad, really...

Before I stumbled upon this place I thought I would be able to do everything alone, handle school and all its problems on my own... and now that I had the power to do all that on my own, I wanted help... and I wanted _to_ help.

Before me several figures clad in terribly scorched and blackened knights armour, huge weapons were mounted upon their backs, stood waiting. As I looked at them and the kneeled as one I felt a sense of belonging, as if these strange and forgotten creatures were connected to me in some way.

Maybe they knew something about all that just happened?

I strode towards them, intent on asking them all the questions my heart desired the answers to... but they stepped to the side like royal knights clearing the way for their king.

I turned to a specific knight to my right – he didn't look any different from the others; the only things that made these warriors distinguishable were their weapons, anyway – and asked him.

"Um... excuse me but... Do you... know what is going on? Where are we?"

To be quite honest, the whole situation freaked me out. I mean... what "normal" girl my age – or any age, for that matter – wouldn't freak out at being on fire while still being fine after waking in a cave after stumbling into said cave after... okay... I should stop rambling.

The point is: I was pretty uncomfortable then. The complete silence from these creatures didn't make me feel any better, actually.

As I inspected the knights' helmet further I could barely perceive the charred flesh beneath it.

How horrible... just what had these knights gone through?

"Ah... The Lord awakens at last... Or would it be The Lady?"

A deep, ominous voice sounded through the chamber, barely louder that the roaring flames.

Up ahead, barely out of the flames' reach, "stood" a serpentine creature, red slitted eyes staring straight at me, a mouth with exposed teeth – no lips were present on the creatures hideous visage – gnawed endlessly on nothing.

The creature looked malformed, like the monster of a horror film, to be honest, but its fleshy mustache hung from above its gnawing teeth in a strange perversion of comic relief.

I was hesitant about interacting with a creature such as this, but it seemed to know more about the situation...

I approached.

"Um... Hello? Who exactly are you? And...", I looked back to the knights who had come closer to me, hands on their weapons as if feeling my reluctance to talk with this snake-like creature, "Do you now where we are? And what just happened?"

The snake seemed to grin slightly – as much as was possible without lips and proper facial muscles.

"Ah... It seems as if the new Lady is in need of some knowledge... Very well, I shall serve as a means of... _exposition_.", it lowered its head in a sort of bow – I wasn't sure if this was meant to be a sincere gesture or if it was mockery – and continued, "But first let me introduce myself... I am the Primordial Serpent, Kingseeker Frampt, close friend of the Great Lord Gwyn... Your... predecessor..."

 _A/N: nd that's it. I'm not entirely satisfied with the middle part of this chapter, but I think it worked out relatively well. Anyway, thank you very much for reading, and I'm sorry for the delay. I hope you had fun reading this chapter (and I hope you will have fun thinking about what might happen, that's always my favourite part about reading stories)._

 _If you liked it or have some constructive criticism, leave it as a review. Thank you very much._

 _-Azralan_


End file.
